What your mind sees when you close your eyes marks the entrance to an endless universe: your imagination. (Stephen Helmes)

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Leprechaun Facts

Leprechauns are fairies, but they aren’t cute and loveable; instead, they are lustful, nasty, and capricious. They can be fun and awesome to be around one day, doing magic tricks that astound and delight you. But as soon as you do something that makes them mad, poof! You’re dead.

leprechauns, flickr

Have you ever noticed that there are no female leprechauns? Hmm. Then how do they make little leprechauns? Well, they don’t. Leprechauns are supposed to be the unwanted offspring of fairies. Could that be the reason they are known to be grouchy, untrusting, and solitary creatures?

Today, we think of leprechauns as always wearing green. But did you know that this hasn’t always been the case? Their beards are normally red, but their clothes used to be red also. I’m having trouble picturing a leprechaun in anything that isn’t green. How about you?

Leprechauns have always worn buckled shoes. And since they are cobblers, they often wear leather aprons. Each one might also be smoking a pipe and wearing a pointed cap or hat.

Did you know that under European law leprechauns are a protected species? So if on your wanderings you happen to spot a leprechaun, you can take a picture, but you must leave the little fellow alone.

There is a leprechaun colony here in the States, located in Portland, Oregon. Do any leprechauns make their home in this colony? The journalist who first said that it was a leprechaun colony—these leprechauns could only be seen by him—wrote about the adventures of the leprechauns who lived here.

Writing Prompt: Why not make a place for a leprechaun colony in your yard? You could interview these leprechauns and write stories about them. A huge mushroom graced my front yard at one time, and I imagined that there were little people, not necessarily leprechauns, that lived beneath it. The mushroom eventually died, so you would need to find something for a colony that wouldn’t go away. Maybe some little tunnels made out of rocks in a garden would be the perfect thing. You could even pretend that the leprechauns had little houses built beneath the rocks.

The Old Cobblers Shop, Ludlow, wikimedia commons

A leprechaun is a fairy, and most fairies have a certain sound associated with them. For the leprechaun, this sound would be the tap-tap-tap of a hammer since they are cobblers. They are known for their cobbling skills and the money they make from it to hide in their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Of course, anyone who runs into a leprechaun will try to get him to divulge the location of his pot of gold. Known for their sneakiness, leprechauns might make someone think they have given away its location when they really haven’t done so. But, if you are kind to them and help them out when they are in trouble, they will also treat you kindly and might even reward you with a few pieces of their gold.

wine cellar, wikimedia commons

A cousin of the leprechaun that likes to raid wine cellars and get into all kinds of other mischief is the mythical clurichaun. Others say that instead of being a cousin of the leprechaun, the clurichaun is really another form of the leprechaun. One of the rumors is that after a hard day’s work, the leprechauns drink lots of wine and get so tipsy that they transform into this mythical creature.

Would you like to catch a leprechaun? Place a shiny object in a shoebox, something that you are sure a leprechaun won’t be able to resist, and rig it to close once the leprechaun enters. There is no guarantee that you will catch one, but there is a chance. 🙂 If you are lucky enough to capture one, he will grant you three wishes if you will let him go.

leprechauns’ lair,imgkid.com

Writing Prompt: Once you build your leprechaun trap, write about how you catch one. But what if you don’t actually trap one? Pretend that you do.

How is your leprechaun dressed? Is he wearing the traditional green, or is he wearing the original red?

Does the leprechaun you captured fight you? Or is he deceptively calm?

Does he try to get out of granting you three wishes to let him go? Does he attempt to trick you by saying that he will take you to his pot of gold?

What do you want to find out from this leprechaun before you let him go? Do you plan on letting him go? Or do you plan on keeping him caged forever? If you do plan on keeping him forever, do you succeed? Or does he somehow escape?